Lee Marie Sanchez, minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Anaheim, was arrested yesterday in Phoenix when she practiced civil disobedience at one of the many rallies in the state.

Maricopa County Sheriff's deputies, left, check the shoes of a suspect arrested during a crime suppression sweep in Phoenix on Thursday night. This was Sheriff Joe Arpaio's 17th immigration and crime sweep after hundreds of immigrant rights supporters delayed the effort with a rally at a downtown jail, in opposition to Arizona's new immigration law SB1070. A judge put the most controversial elements of the law on hold, but allowed other portions to take effect.

Protestors gets arrested for civil disobedience outside Maricopa County Jail in Phoenix on Thursday. The showdown over Arizona's immigration law played out in court and on Phoenix's sun-splashed streets on Thursday, as the state sought to reinstate key parts of the measure and angry protesters chanted that they refused to

Hundreds of demonstrators from the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor gather on the lawn of Arizona's state capitol to protest the state's SB1070 immigration-enforcement law Thursday in Phoenix.

Hundreds gather at a solidarity rally at St. Matthews Church to protest the portions of the new Arizona immigration law that went into effect Thursday in Phoenix, the day after portions of Arizona's SB1070 went into effect, but after a federal judge struck down some of the law's provisions.

An Anaheim minister, a Mission Viejo church leader and possibly other locals are part of a group of Unitarians arrested Thursday during an immigration-law protest in Phoenix, according to local faith leaders.

Law enforcement officials arrested them as they participated in one of the many civil disobedience rallies across Phoenix, she said.

Immigration rights activists from across the nation descended on Phoenix to participate in mostly peaceful protests and acts of civil disobedience despite a judge’s ruling this week that temporarily blocks parts of Arizona’s anti-illegal immigration law from going into effect.

Local activists had said they protested because they want the immigration law, SB1070, to be repealed.

The Arizona Republic reports that at least 50 people were arrested during the protests.

Maricopa Sheriff Joe Arpaio told The Associated Press that he was “not going to put up with any civil disobedience” when the state’s new immigration law took effect.

“Intelligence gathering leads us to believe that several acts of civil disobedience are planned – here at my office headquarters in the Wells Fargo Bank high rise in downtown Phoenix; at the jails including Tent City and at Thursday’s crime suppression operation which will be conducted by my deputies and posse members,” Arpaio said in a statement issued earlier this week.

“Activists and their celebrity sympathizers who wish to target this community and this Sheriff by attempting to disrupt our jail and patrol operations will be unsuccessful as we will be fully prepared to meet those challenges head on with appropriately staffed personnel and resources.”

Sanchez and Meslin were part of a group of Unitarians who on Thursday morning blocked off Washington Street, near Arpaio’s office at the Wells Fargo Building in downtown Phoenix, said Naui Huitzilopochtli, a Santa Ana videographer who filmed portions of the rally before authorities blocked his view.

Huitzilopochtli is one of many immigration rights activists who arrived in Phoenix to rally against what’s left of the law.

Huitzilopochtli said the group was holding a sign that referred to human rights and holding hands, chanting “We will not comply. Not to SB1070, we will not comply.”

“The police told them to disperse or get arrested,” Huitzilopochtli said.” They refused so they got arrested one by one.”

Telephone calls to Sanchez and Meslin have not been returned. In an e-mail statement released Saturday morning, Sanchez said that she did not have her phone with her but hoped to have it returned by authorities later that day.

“We still break into tears at any moment…processing this experience,” she wroet of herself and another person who was arrested alongside her. “One of the greatest things we have experienced here is meeting all the incredible people from Puente…especially the women with whom we bonded in jail.”

Jaime Vega, a board member at the Unitarian Church in Anaheim, said Sanchez had traveled to Phoenix with the intention of getting arrested for civil disobedience.

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